The president of the UDI, Javier Macaya, ruled out that his party will assume a more leading role in the campaign for the “Rejection” in the face of the exit plebiscite, for which he suggested that such a task should be carried out by the world more linked to the old center-left, the one that voted for a new Constitution but has publicly expressed its disagreement with the work carried out by the Constitutional Convention.
“We believe that what comes in these months has to be for Chileans to be informed, not for the center-right to assume a role, as it was for the entry plebiscite with leadership and protagonism. This is not going to be played on the government-opposition axis, or left-right, as has traditionally been played in the last 30 years, it is going to be played on the democracy-authoritarian axis,” added Macaya.
Aware that the leading role of those who have endorsed the current Constitution could be counterproductive, the trade unionist senator declared to The Mercury that, notwithstanding this renunciation, the sector must build bridges with other sectors that are not ideologically related to generate the conditions that make a “third way” possible.
“The protagonists are going to be civil society and those Chileans who voted ‘Approve’ out of good will and who today are disappointed. They must be offered a common project for a new Constitution that is credible, and the most important thing is that this construction be done with a lot of political conversation and negotiation,” said the helmsman of the guild. “There are still the last opportunities for the last comma of this to be written, but not having met expectations, we as a political class, and calling on everyone to participate, are going to have to do an exercise on how we provide Chile with a new Constitution,” he added.
Likewise, Javier Macaya agreed that Congress can play a key role in the conversation aimed at opening the possibility of a “third way.” He said: “I trust politics as a way to channel the problems of society and I think that part of that conversation has to take place in Parliament.”
Along with criticizing the installation of the government of President Gabriel Boric, and in addition to specifying that the fear of the expropriation of pension funds has played against the credibility of the constituent process, Senator Macaya stated that “we have to see how opens a ‘third way’. We must recognize that there are Chileans who a year and a half ago voted ‘I approve’, who want a new Constitution and, if the Convention is not capable of doing so, we have to respond to that”.
Finally, pointing to the need to face the new political cycle with a new focus on social rights, but emphasizing at all times that this must be approached differently from how the left addresses it, the parliamentarian for the O’Higgins Region affirmed that “the Convention is drawing a document that can destroy individual liberties and guarantees for Chileans. That is why we have not wanted to take a position regarding the exit plebiscite”, he added, while assuring that “the problem is fundamental, not communicational or perceptions. That is not a campaign of terror, and they know it, the main enemy of the constituent process has been the Convention itself”.
